CIA director met with Zelenskyy in Kyiv on the day of Russian missile strikes

Bill Burns, the Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Tuesday, 15 November. Burns reaffirmed US support for Ukraine on the day that Russian missiles struck Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine.

Source: European Pravda, citing the Washington Post, which quotes an anonymous US official

Details: While in Kyiv, Burns "reinforced the US commitment to provide support to Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression," the official said. Burns was safely in the US Embassy during Russian missile strikes across Ukraine, the official noted.

Burns also met with his Ukrainian counterparts from the country’s intelligence services and discussed "the US warning he had delivered on Monday to the head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service not to use nuclear weapons," the official said.

On 14 November, Burns visited Ankara to meet with his Russian intelligence counterpart, Sergey Naryshkin.

This was the first known high-level meeting between US and Russian officials since the Russian Federation’s invasion in Ukraine.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that US and allied officials said that US national-security adviser Jake Sullivan has been in contact with Yuri Ushakov, a foreign-policy adviser to Mr. Putin. Mr Sullivan also has spoken with his direct counterpart in the Russian government, Nikolai Patrushev, the officials added.

The aim has been to guard against the risk of escalation and keep communications channels open, and not to discuss a settlement of the war in Ukraine, the officials said.

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